Family ties
by melles
Summary: Grissom gets confronted with his past...


Title: Family ties Author: Melles  
  
Disclaimer: As usual: I'm just playing with them, everything belongs to CBS.  
Notes: This is my 2. story (First: It's never too  
late). Back here in Germany, there's not much of information  
about the series. Almost everything l I know comes from the  
internet. I'm not sure, but it looks like that nobody has much  
information about Grissom's private life. So, I created a  
little story by myself.enjoy it. And - don't forget: English  
isn't my native language, so please forgive me if there are any  
mistakes in the text. Feedback? Sure, if you like to.  
  
Summary: Gil gets confronted with his past.(G/C)  
  
Chapter 1  
  
CSI Headquarter  
  
It was a slow night. Grissom was the only busy one, his paper  
stack seemed to went higher and higher with  
each night and the only way to keep it at a manageable size was  
to get it done real quick. Catherine and Sara  
went to get some background news about a series of burglaries, but had no real passion about it. Warrick came to look after Nick since he had done all the analyses and was getting bored. Nick sat at the table in the break room and had a forensic journal in hands. Obviously he was reading with great interest. When Warrick entered the room, Nick didn't react.  
"What's up, man? Hope you got some more exciting things to do than reading that stuff." Warrick said to him.  
Nick looked up and had a quizzical look at Warrick. "Do you know if Grissom's got a brother?"  
Warrick laughed. "Why would you like to know that?"  
"Because in here is a article about a Jacob Grissom. He's a chemist, age 30, and he's in town this weekend for a seminar about new techniques in everyday lab-work."  
"Is a picture in there?"  
"No."  
"I have no idea about any relatives on Grissom. Could be one of it, who knows? But 30? They are 20 years apart! Must be coincidence. There must be hundreds of Grissom's all over the country."  
Nick glanced up to Warrick: "Should we check the computer?"  
Both looked at each other for a few seconds, then apart. Their eyes made contact one more time and they ended up by saying: "Nah!" simultaneously.  
  
Grissom on the other end of the hallway sighed behind his desk and put his glasses down to rub his face. He stared at the wall for a moment. Then he was startled by the telephone. "Grissom".  
"It's Brass. Look, you should come here as soon as possible. We have a drive-by-shooting."  
"Okay, I send Warrick and Nick over to." he answered, but was interrupted by Brass.  
"Um, it'll be better if you could come here by yourself."  
"What's this all about, Jim? I have paperwork to do, it'll keep my busy 'til next week", he tried once more.  
"Please?" Brass said on the other end of the line.  
"Okay. What's the address?" he said annoyed.  
  
Sunset Boulevard  
  
After 20 minutes of driving Grissom reached the place of the earlier shooting. Two police cars parked on the side of the road plus Brass' car in front of them. Grissom climbed out of the SUV, grabbed his kit and went to Det. Brass, who was talking to a police officer. Behind them laid the body of a young male.  
"Good to see you, Grissom", Brass said.  
"And?" Grissom said, still a little bit annoyed. He went to the body and kneeled down to take a closer look. "Sanders could have handled this, I don't understand why I had to come here."  
"It's not because of the victim, but because of the eye witness", Brass answered.  
"Eye witness?" He stood up and watched around. "Where?"  
"In the police car. He's a bit shaken, you know."  
"What's about him? You do know that I don't interested in witnesses very much? I for one go for the evidence."  
"Yeah, the evidence, I know. But.this one is important. He was first - and this makes him a suspect."  
Grissom turned to the police car. "Okay. I've got this one. What's his name?"  
He didn't respond immediately and seemed to search for the right words to say: "It's Jacob."  
At this name Grissom froze. He stood there for several seconds. "Jake?"  
"Gil? Hey.see, that's why I wanted you. You should talk to him first, although he didn't want to see you."  
He showed no reaction but slowly went to the car. He opened the backdoor and took a deep breath.  
Inside the car, the young man got into action, and climbed out. He stopped dead in his tracks as he recognized who was standing in front of him. "Thank you very much, Jim!" he shouted towards Brass. His voice was full of sarcasm. Then he turned around and looked Grissom straight in the eyes. "Long time no see, my friend."  
  
Headquarter  
  
"Since when you're here in Vegas?" Grissom asked while they drove back to the headquarter after finishing the crime scene. Jacob was on the passengers seat looking through the window.  
"Arrived this afternoon. I was walking around the block. You know the rest", he answered in short terms and still refused to look at the driver.  
After they left the car, they went into the police building. Brass was already waiting. "We can do the interrogation later, if you want."  
"No, I have nothing to hide, Jim. The faster we're through this, the faster I'm back at the hotel", Jacob answered. "Or do you have better things to do?" he said towards Gil.  
He just stared at the younger man. "I don't understand you. Why are you giving me a hard time on this one? I'm here to help you. At least I'm trying."  
"Oh yeah? Like you did the last years? I'm flattered. Isn't there anybody else to do the investigation?" Jacob said and went with the police officer to the interrogation room.  
Gil looked at Brass who held up his hands in defend. "He's just a bit confused, I guess. Give him some time."  
Grissom sighed and said: "I better watch from the outside. He wouldn't tell a word while I'm next to him. He's stubborn."  
Brass nodded and went after the two men.  
  
In the meantime, Catherine and Sara had also arrived and were sitting in the break room together with Warrick and Nick. "We learned absolutely nothing about the Jackson case. Every lead we followed up.nothing. How I hate those situations. Hours of hard work and what we get is." Catherine said angry.  
Nick finished her sentence: ".let me guess: nothing?"  
  
All of them looked up as a cop and a young man walked down the hallway followed by Brass and Grissom.  
"Looks like Griss has a new case. Lucky man." Sara said and took a sip of coffee.  
"Good looking guy", Catherine said after she spotted Jacob through the window. "Do you know what case Grissom's on?"  
"Drive-by shooting", Warrick answered. "This is the only eye witness, as far as I'm concerned."  
  
10 minutes later Jacob and Brass walked back, still speaking with each other. Grissom entered the break room short time later and went straight to the coffee machine. He was quiet.  
"That was short. Got no luck?" Catherine was the first to speak.  
He didn't answer. Instead he was looking very angry as he turned around and walked back to his office.  
"Woah, better get out of his way the next hours. I know this look. He's ready to explode", Catherine said.  
  
She decided to follow him. She peered through the almost closed door. He sat behind his desk, staring at his hands, lost in thoughts. She knocked softly but waited not until he answered. "Hey", she said gently and stood right in front of him. Gil looked at her, still quiet. Catherine know this was going to be difficult. She grabbed a chair and sat down. "Last time I saw you in this mood, one of your butterflies died", she said and tried to cheer him up.  
He smiled at her: "It was a tarantula and she didn't die, one of the lab techs used her to catch flies from a dead body. He thought this was funny. But he messed up, the tarantula went away and the whole building fled. I've got into real trouble. At least I caught her in Ecklie's office."  
Catherine smiled too. Grissom could be mad like hell, but talking about his creepy crawlers always was a good start. "So.why are you so angry? The guy wasn't a big help, or was he? Has he something to hide?"  
"No, he's not guilty."  
"And you say that because he told you so?"  
"Yeah."  
"So you got evidence to proof his version?"  
"No."  
"That's why you are angry. You have no evidence!" Catherine said.  
"No."  
"Oh, come on Gil. We can play this game the whole night long. But you're not going to win. I'm persistent."  
Grissom knew this. There was no way to hide information from Catherine. She could be a real pain in the ass, but she was his friend too. He thought about his options, but came to no conclusion. She was right. She was persistent.  
'Okay, here goes nothing' he thought. "I believe him because." he stopped and looked at her. ".because he's my son."  
Catherine's eyes went big. "That explains his good looking, he's practical a younger version of you. But not his behaviour. Or yours." They looked at each other. She stood. "God, Grissom. I've got millions of questions!! You have a son!? Are you married? Why didn't you tell me earlier? You've got a family at least. Wait until the others knows this. Warrick owes me 50 bucks. Come on, speak."  
He smiled. He could almost hear her brain working. "First, come down to the ground, okay? Thank you for the compliments about "my younger version". Now, to answer your questions. yes, I have a son. No, I'm not married anymore. We've got divorced 20 years ago. I didn't tell you because.no offence, but this is not your business. And didn't I forbid taking bets in the office?"  
"Okay. Tell me about them."  
"Why don't we take a walk?" he asked her.  
"Sure."  
  
Before they left he went back to the break room. Everyone inside waited to get a reprimand, but he just told them to take over for the rest of the shift. He could be reached via cell phone and they should be nice to each other while he and Catherine went to do some business.  
Sara looked at Warrick and Nick. "What was that? That's odd, what do you think?"  
Warrick shrugged and answered: "As long as Catherine is with him, we are safe. So, what's next?"  
  
Chapter 2  
  
They walked a few blocks in silent. Then he sat down on a bench and watched the cars going by at 2 o'clock in the morning. She jointed him, looking at him closely.  
He noticed her glance. "What?"  
"Gil Grissom, I can't believe it! You have a son.so many years and I don't nothing about you."  
"Well, .I have 2 sons and 1 daughter to be honest."  
"That's incredible! Okay, from the beginning on. Where do you met your wife?"  
"We were high school sweat hearts, believe it or not. Right after graduation Linda and I moved together to L.A. At age 20 I was offered a job at the coroner's office. Two years later, Jacob was born. I did a lot of work. I was the youngest coroner in the history of Los Angeles. One year later, Thomas came to the world. But the relationship was about to break up. I worked nights and slept on days. I didn't see much from the kids, nor my wife. She went to her mother for a few months, along with the boys. We decided to give it a try and moved back together. First time everything went fine, she got pregnant again and gave birth to Susan. But it wasn't supposed to be a happy relationship at all." he stopped.  
"I'm sorry", Catherine said softly.  
"Linda got a new man, she wanted the divorce. There was nothing I couldn't do. We didn't want to fight, because of the kids. So, I signed the papers. She went away to North Carolina. She sent pictures over the years, and I tried to keep contact, but you know.they were happy with their new life.So I went to Las Vegas and stayed here."  
"That's hard."  
"As the kids got older, they found out that Henry wasn't their father. So Linda had to tell them.we met a few times, Jacob was fascinated by Brass being a cop. Jake told him, he wanted to be a cop, too. I tried to stop him because I knew the consequences of this job. He was already mad at me for.the kids blamed me for breaking up. They still do. That's why Jacob is giving me a hard time. He's stubborn."  
"Just as his old man is", she said.  
"Yeah." He went silent again.  
"But the break up wasn't the only reason Jacob's mad at you, or was it?"  
"No. He's mad at me because.because of my hearing."  
"He's disabled, too?" Catherine asked.  
  
"No. But Thomas, he was born almost deaf.and lost his hearing at age 2." he sighed again. "Of course Linda and I talked about having children. I wasn't sure how I could handle this. I mean, I was well aware of my genetic fault. I didn't want to have my children to deal with this. But then I had to think of my mother."  
"She did a great job with you, you know", Catherine smiled. She had a better understanding of her friend now. She was able to see things different now.  
"I got a long talk with Jake about this. He couldn't understand why we had children at all, knowing the risks. He said that Thomas didn't have a choice. That none of them had. Chances are that their children will suffer the same disability."  
"And Thomas? What's his opinion?"  
"Well, he sort of grew up with it. Never knew a other situation. When he was old enough it was my take to explain it to him. He surprised me by saying that he's happy."  
"What do they do for living?"  
"Jake is a chemist, working for a company who invents equipment for crime labs. Thomas is a handy man, works for a furniture company and Susan is a teacher."  
"Nice to hear. You must be proud."  
"I'm - that's for sure. I love them. Once a year I call them. Seems like they are a bit softer to me now. I respect their lifes, but I'm sad that they are reacting this way."  
"I understand your "bad" behaviour now. You are still suffering and you don't want to get hurt that way again. But that's life. It's never been easy. Tell you what - you will learn to cope", Catherine smiled. "Are you going to tell the others as well?"  
"I have to. They will not stop asking me questions about what happened before. And you are going to explode if you can't tell them the news."  
"Hey! I'm not that bad.but I have to share this."  
He stood and looked at his watch. "Almost 4.00 a.m. We should go back. And I should try to contact Jake first thing in the morning."  
  
Headquarter  
  
As they were back at the police station, Sara was working on the computer and Nick was with Greg who did analyses on the pieces of evidence Grissom had collected before. Warrick talked with Brass who was looking for Grissom.  
"Hey! There you are. I've got a suspect on the drive-by shooting. Thanks to Jacob. He's a good observer."  
Catherine looked at Gil. He smiled. "I know. I know."  
  
Nick approached them. "We need the fingerprints from, what's his name?"  
"John Masters", Brass answered.  
"Yeah, we need fingerprints from Masters. We've found a partial at one of the casings. Sara did the comparison on the tire tracks. They fit to his car. Looks like we've got him."  
Gil turned to his team. "Good work, guys. Keep on going. I've got some paperwork to do. Let's meet for breakfast, okay?"  
They all agreed and went to work.  
  
Nick went with Catherine. "What's going on here? First Griss seems to be mad at the world and then comes back and makes compliments. What did you do with him?"  
"I think he learned something tonight. Let's say I got some weight off his shoulders", she answered and left a slightly stunned Nick behind.  
"Hey Warrick? Did you hear that? Does this makes sense to you? And who is this Jacob Grissom?" he said as he walked back to the lab.  
  
As said, Sara, Catherine, Nick and Warrick met for breakfast in the cafeteria after their shift had ended. Grissom was already sitting on a table, reading the newspaper. After everyone made their orders, Grissom spoke. "I'd like to explain about what happened tonight."  
He didn't tell them the whole story like he did with Catherine, but said what had to be said. They were stunned. At least. Of course everyone of them had questions. He didn't answer all of them, since he refused to talk about his private life this openly. He would take one step at a time.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Headquarter  
  
The next day, Nick went to Grissom's office. He had the magazine with him. He greeted his boss as he stepped in. "Hey. Just thought you wanted to know." Nick said and gave him the magazine.  
Grissom took it and read the article. "Thanks. I appreciate that."  
"You're welcome. So, do you have any assignments for us?"  
"Sure. Let's go."  
  
At the end of the shift, Catherine joint Gil at the locker room. "Did you talk to Jake?" she wanted to know.  
He smiled. "Yes. I stood at his hotel door for about 30 minutes before he let me in." He shook his head. "But it turned out, that someone special talked to him before."  
"Who?"  
"Brass."  
"No way!" she said.  
"Yeah. Could you believe that?" He shook his head again. "We had a nice time then. I tried to explain him what went wrong.I guess he needs some time to think about."  
"I'm proud of you. You did the right thing. There's always hope, you know"; Catherine said. She turned to leave.  
"Catherine?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Did I thank you for.I don't know what. For being my friend, for your support, for.everything, I guess", he said.  
"Vice versa. You helped me with Eddie. You were there for me and Lindsay. That's what friends are for."  
  
It was Friday morning, 9 a. m. when someone knocked on Grissom's office door.  
"Yes?" Gil said and waited for his visitor to come in.  
It was Jacob. "Hey."  
Grissom stood and motioned for him to take a seat. "Nice to see you. Please make yourself comfortable."  
Jacob hesitated, but then stepped in. "Heard you've got the bad guy. Jim told me."  
"Yeah, thanks to you."  
"I.I thought about our last conversation. I also talked with mom and Tom and Sue. It's not easy.I mean, we.I was angry at you the last 20 years. How am I supposed to react in the correct way?"  
"Jake.look, you don't know how much I missed you and your family. Partly it was my fault, but I think we are old enough to handle this like real grown ups. What'd you say about this?"  
"Fair enough."  
"I'm happy. It's so good to see you not being angry at me."  
Jacob laughed.  
"What's so funny?"  
"Oh, nothing. It's just.I thought of."  
"What?" Grissom wanted to know.  
"I'd like to ride a coaster right now. It's great. Do you ride coasters, too?"  
Gil had to laugh too. "I love riding coasters. We can ride it all day long here in Vegas! Tell you what, son, right after this shift, we're going to this real big coaster at the park. That's a deal?"  
"Deal."  
Then something happened. Jacob went behind the desk and hugged Gil warmly. Grissom was stunned, but returned the gesture. "You don't know how much I missed you, Jake", he said softly. "All of you."  
After they hugged, Jacob cleared his throat. "There's something.I.I wanted to say to you. I have this seminar going this weekend.and.it would be great to have you around.dad."  
Grissom was speechless. He had to swallow. "I.it's a pleasure. Thank you very much."  
"I also talked to the others. Especially Greg. Poor guy works with some really old stuff, you know. Who's responsible for new inventory, anyway?" he smiled.  
"That would be me. What old stuff?"  
"You'll see at the seminar. Okay, gotta go. I want to take a look at the casinos. When do we meet again?"  
"Is 12 a.m. okay with you?"  
"Sure. See you at 12 then." With that he left the office.  
Grissom smiled and went back to work. Maybe Catherine was right. There's always hope.  
  
Las Vegas University  
  
The seminar Jacob did was great. He was a good scientist and a salesman as well. He did a few jokes and the audience was having a good time. Grissom sat in the front row. It was his day off and he had needed the rest. On Friday afternoon the two of them went to the roller coaster and Grissom showed him a bit of Vegas, too. They talked for hours and today he was worn out but happy after all. Finally he made contact with Jake. It was a good start. After Jacob's lecture some new customer went to him and he was occupied for several minutes. Grissom was waiting for him at the exit. "Good show, Jake. How does it went for you?"  
"Good. I've made some new contacts. We'll see. My flight goes tomorrow morning. Are you up for something to eat?" he asked Gil.  
"Yes. I'm starving. What would you like to eat?"  
"Oh, don't know. Chinese maybe?  
"Good. I know a excellent place for that", Grissom answered. "Where do you go next?"  
"Let's see, Utah, Nebraska, Illinois, Tennessee, and then back home Charlotte/North Carolina" he said after checking his notes. "I'm busy for the next 3 months. And all the paperwork in the company, plus the development of this new laser technique keeps me busy, too."  
"Tough job. But as long as you get along with your family and friends." Gil said.  
"Speaking of.here's the picture of my wife Sandy", Jacob replied and showed his father the picture.  
"Nice. Very nice. Maybe we can meet someday."  
"Yeah, would be great. Now let's grab something to eat. While doing that we could talk about the new analyser for your lab."  
"New analyser?" Grissom raised an eyebrow while they walked outside the building.  
  
After Jacob had left Saturday morning, Grissom missed him immediately. He went to work that evening and right after he put his stuff in his office he searched for Brass. He found him at the reception, where he was speaking with a cop. As Brass saw Grissom, he greeted him and left the cop. "Grissom!"  
"Jim. I wanted to thank you for your help. I don't know what to say."  
"Hey, he's a good guy. A little annoying sometimes, but since I know his father." he smiled. "I hope I could help. Wasn't easy to get through him at first."  
"Well, I finally made contact with him. I would say that's a huge step forward. Thank you."  
"My pleasure. Okay, back to work. I've got a dead body at Lake Mead."  
"Take Nick. See you", Grissom said and left.  
  
Headquarter  
  
On Sunday morning Grissom's telephone rang at his office while he was busy feeding his bugs. He went to answer. "Grissom", he said but heard no answer. "Hello?"  
"Hi, it's Linda", a voice finally said.  
"Hey! Good to hear you. How are you?"  
"I'm fine. Jake called me yesterday and was full of enthusiasm. I could barley stop him. I just wanted to say that he's proud of you. He always was."  
Gil couldn't think of something to say, so he stayed silent.  
"Tom and Sue says hello to you. Maybe it's a good thing after all. Jake refused to go to Las Vegas first. I talked to him for hours. Now.how are you, Gil?"  
"Great. I miss all of you."  
"Maybe we all can make up an appointment soon. Would love to."  
"Just call me and I'm on the way."  
"Okay. Bye.  
"Bye."  
  
Two weeks later a package was delivered for Gil. He opened it immediately since it was from North Carolina. Inside was a video tape, a letter and some pictures. He read the letter with tears in his eyes. Mostly written by Susan, he learned that she was going to be a mother in 2 months time. He stopped. That meant he was going to be a grandfather. He read the lines a second time. Actually he already was because Thomas and his wife Carol adopted two orphans eight years ago. Catherine stood by the doorframe and watched happily, as he read the letter over and over again. She cleared her throat and made him look up.  
"Assignments?" she asked.  
"What? Oh, yes. I forgot. Hey, do you like to meet my family?" he asked.  
"Yeah. You've got pictures?"  
  
"Yep. And a video tape."  
"That's wonderful. Like to share what's in that letter?" she wanted to know.  
"Oh, the usual stuff, you know. How they live and what they do and that I'm a three times grandfather in two months. Nothing special", he smiled.  
She hugged him. "Grandfather! I can't believe it! Congratulations! Grandpa Grissom! I love that. Grandpa Grissom." she teased him.  
Warrick's head appeared in the doorframe. "What?!"  
"Yeah. I can't believe it either. One day your kids hate you and then the next day...you are a grandfather!" he said to him.  
"Nick!! Guess what! I've got news for you" Warrick shouted and went after Nick.  
"The whole department will know about this in no time", he said and wrinkled his forehead.  
"Are you afraid of that?" Catherine asked.  
"A bit maybe."  
"Hey boss! Just heard the news. Congrats. And thanks for the new analyser. That stuff rocks!" Greg said, as he stood outside the office, because Warrick and Nick were blocking the entry.  
Brass could be heard: "Sorry to interrupt your little party, but I'm afraid the bad guys out there don't take a time out."  
Everyone went to work, except Catherine, who still stood in Grissom's office. "You see, miracles happen and there's always hope."  
  
The end...(?) 


End file.
